It is a pleasure to
honour one’s Alma Mater on a memorable occasion when she is proudly
commemorating her 125th anniversary in 2010. Southlands College began as an
English Medium Education Institute in the latter part of the 19th Century in
accordance with the education policies that prevailed during the British Period.

The school was
started in 1885 by the Methodist Mission with the intention of promoting English
education in Southern Sri Lanka and in the beginning, it was known as Girls High
School, Galle. Since its inception, the school was under the management of the
Methodist Mission up to 1962.

The period of
1960-1962 is considered important in the history of Southlands as it was on the
verge of being vested in the Government according to the policy of the
Government in power at that time. In 1962 the college was registered as a
Government school and the last Principal under the missionary management retired
from service in 1962.

The new building of the school

The overall vision
and objectives of the school at the very beginning under a missionary management
was not only to impart book learning to girl students but to make them useful
citizens to the country by being good and caring mothers to a generation.
Educationalist P.De.S. Kularatna, in a tribute to Christian missionaries in a
Richmond College magazine, stated what they did was to befriend their pupils and
give them living models of what life is all about. All missionary principals
have done wonders to put a solid foundation to the school to nurture Southlands
as a popular school in Southern Sri Lanka during the 20th Century.

Excellence in
studies and many extra curricular activities elevated the institution to a
prestigious position in the field of education. She had produced distinguished
and renowned personalities to the nation and some of them have been honoured as
pioneers of various professional fields of expertise.

All races

At the inception, a
large number of Burgher students, both male and female, were attending school
and a small percentage of boys were in the primary section. When the number of
Sinhala and Muslim female students started increasing gradually, it was unable
to accommodate all and therefore, it was compelled to stop admitting boys making
Southlands a girls-only school.

Education was
provided with minimum facilities at first during the missionary period and there
had been a rapid development within a few years mainly from 1902 owing to
courage and determination of a string of dedicated Principals, namely, Edith de
Vos (Ludovici), M. Westlake and M. Freethy and E. Ridge. E.de Vos, serving in
tutorial staff, became the Principal being the first past pupil to hold the post
when there was a scarcity of missionary Principals. Hers was a remarkable period
of development with the introduction of library reading, Western music and
Physical Training which were encouraged and developed by all principals. A new
era dawned with Westlake as Principal in 1907.

She inaugurated the
Past Pupils Association, First Galle Girl Guide Company and more development was
shown in the academic field with the introduction of science as a subject and
building a science laboratory and also a special unit for the kindergarten
children. Providing boarding facilities to students and, teachers for their
well-being by Westlake in 1917 is a major event in the school’s history.

The rapid
development enabled the school to be upgraded by the Government in 1922, and M
Freethy re-named the school as “Southlands” to honour Westlake as she had
studied at Southlands institution in the United Kingdom before came to Sri
Lanka. The school had the right to be named as such for its geographical
location too.

Dedicated Principals

During the first
quarter of the 19th Century, two dedicated Principals, M. Freethy and M. Ridge
happily devoted their lives to upgrade the school in many avenues. They had very
liberal ideas on women’s education and helped many a student to continue higher
studies. In the 1930s university graduates were rare and the girls were not
encouraged to follow higher studies.

Freethy and Ridge
had the perceptive insight to guide the gifted students to enter the Medical
College or the Training College or any other field during that era. The entire
Roberts family in Fort, Prof. Stella de Silva, Dr. Buddimathi Kulatunga, Dr.
Yvette Brohier, Noeline Jayawardena, Prof. Daphny Attygala entered University
even though Southlands did not have facilities for such education; but they
found accommodation in nearby schools or in Colombo under the guidance by
Southlands Principals.

A few of them Lolita
Ranasinghe, Fidelia Samarasinghe, Estelle Jurianze, Clara Nanayakkara, entered
the Training College. They are certainly only a few among many fortunate
students who were able to follow higher studies with such guidance.

Another old girl of
Southlands, Joyce Goonesekera, found an alternative path to success and brought
fame to Sri Lanka by being the pioneer montessori teacher who introduced the
Maria Montessori method of teaching. Prof. E.F.C. Ludowyk, a pioneer in the
field of drama and internationally famous carrier diplomat Dr. Neville
Kanakaratna are among the few males who had the primary education at Southlands.
Prof. Stella de Silva became the first woman in Sri Lanka to obtain her MD.

Successful at both
MRCP (Edinburgh) Paediatrics and MRCP (London) Medicine in 1954, she had the
privilege of becoming the first woman in South Asia to obtain both degrees at
the first sitting. She was awarded the Vidyajothi title from the State in 1994
in appreciation of her distinguished work in the field of science and medicine.
Dr. Buddhimathi Kulatunga, a friend who followed in Stella’s footsteps, became
the first lady Doctor to be the resident house officer at the Castle Street
Hospital at its opening.

The principals who
were dedicated missionaries professed no discrimination. They were worried when
Muslim students were confined to their homes attaining puberty and made
arrangements to teach them and to enjoy girl guiding too at their homes and the
classes became popular among the students.

Education in
vernacular mediums

Most colleges at
that time did not emphasise on teaching Sinhala, and the urban middle class who
had their education in English medium used to imitate western culture and the
mother-tongue was given step-motherly treatment.

The school motto
Knit together in Love and Service was depicted on the School logo in simple
English and Sinhalese which is unusual for an English Medium school during the
colonial period. Special emphasis was given to teach Sinhala and Sinhala
Literature. A Sinhala stage drama was a special feature in the program of
‘Southlands Week’ held annually where all main school events celebrated within
one whole week. Being missionaries, they never had any religious discrimination.

The annual stage
drama was always based on Buddhist Jathaka stories or historical legends from
Sri Lanka and India. Realizing the value of Sri Lankan culture Ridge introduced
a specially trained dancing and music teacher, Herman Perera from Payagala, in
1955 and the children had the opportunity to learn the Eastern Music and
Oriental Dancing. Perera directed students in the field of drama too and stage
drama was produced by the college very successfully. In 1970, the school
produced Kusa Jatakaya, which was the final play in a series of stage dramas
that began with the first Sinhala drama Asokamala in 1924, encouraged by
Freethy.

While trying to
educate the student in the English medium, the Principals encouraged them to
learn Sinhalese too to improve their knowledge, talents and skills in various
fields. Even though there were a few Tamil students in the school they provided
facilities to them to learn Tamil Language. Principal’s report of 1939 states.

“Although there are
a very few Tamil children in the school, Tamil has been taught regularly for a
number of years. This is in accordance with our policy of emphasising the
vernacular. Practically all our classes are working on a time table which gives
an average of a Sinhalese lesson a day...”.

We should pay
gratitude to them for paving a path to introduce ‘Swabasha’ to Southlanders in
different avenues even before 1956.

When Southlands
entered the free scheme of education in 1951, English was bound to lose some of
the importance and interest with the change of medium in studies. Ridge was not
happy about the change.

In her School Report
1955, she says “one of the problems that is making itself vaguely felt is that
few girls who have always had difficulty with English now feel that pass in
Sinhala is all that matters ...we ask the co-operation of parents in our
endeavour to maintain a high standard in both English and Sinhala.” She was far
sighted and Sri Lanka has experienced the gravity of it today when we find many
students who find it difficult without language skills to fulfil their ambitions
in the careers of their choice.

Well armed

Even though Physical
Training was taught in school from 1902, more development was visible in the
field of sports when Ridge introduced Nalini de Silva, a Physical Instructress
trained at College of Physical Training Saidapet, Madras, to develop the
students’ athletic skills. Two major sports in the era were athletics and Net
Ball and Southlanders participated in many tournaments and were able to bring
credit and honour to the college in the mid 19th Century.

Even though Ridge
knew that the school will be handed over to the Government in a few years time,
with much courage she embarked on an ambitious building scheme to find
comfortable shelter for more children as she was aware of the future needs far
ahead of time.

Pupils, past pupils,
parents, teachers and all well wishers who loved Ridge gave the fullest
co-operation and the majestic three storeyed ‘Ridge Building’ housing the upper
school, the office, the principal’s flat, the science block, art room and
library was completed before her retirement in 1956.

It became a great
asset to the school which stands as a great monument of her love and labour for
our alma mater. We witnessed a golden era of Southlands due to her influence as
vice Principal and Principal for more than 20 years which was remarkably wide
and deep towards the development of the school at all times.

When the missionary
period ended in 1962, school had less than 800 students and Principal identified
almost all the students by their first name and all were dedicated to follow the
motto making the school a small family. Today Southlands College being a
National School caters to a large number of students with over 4,000 students
and consists of a tutorial staff of 175 teachers.

Southlands being a
pioneer girls’ school in the island will be a legend in the history of education
in Southern Sri Lanka. We should not forget that it is situated within the
surroundings of a World Heritage Zone.

It will be a great pleasure to all
past and present Southlanders if the authorities are making an attempt to
develop a Museum since there is a fair amount of items and important documents
available which could be displayed with much pride to flourish the glory of the
school far and wide. Southlanders who are spending the evening of their lives
will bring back memories of their childhood when reminiscing the past glorious
days of our alma mater with much love and gratitude.